Such a closing device has already been disclosed in DE 101 48 639 A 1; a front hood is to be fixed by way of the closing device on the front structure of the vehicle body. For this purpose the closing device has a rotary latch which interacts with a cover-side locking clamp and which is held securely in its closed position by means of a spring-loaded pawl. To open the hood the pawl can be transferred against the spring force of the spring element to a release position, after which the pawl which has likewise been pretensioned via a spring element is to be moved into an open position. By means of a lock ejection spring the locking clamp and the entire hood is to be transferred to a holding position which is elevated relative to the front structure until a catch hook assigned here to the pawl engages the locking clamp which is used here as the catch element. This holding position of the catch hook and hood ensures that it does not completely open when the closing device is unintentionally actuated, but rather simply by a small vertical amount relative to the front structure. When the hood is intentionally opened conversely the catch hook must be transferred manually out of the holding position into the open position in which the locking clamp is released in order to thus open the hood completely.
The disadvantage in this known closing device is considered to be the circumstance that the catch hook as part of the pawl can only be transferred into its open position by an operator effecting manual intervention from the front, with the vehicle stopped.
The object of this invention is therefore to improve a closing device of the initially mentioned type such that it can be used in a more versatile manner.